Pinole News

One Alvarado Square. 510-215-3005. The council will discuss a Youth Protection Ordinance and hold a public hearing on a proposed rezoning of 2140 Vale Road from Institutional to Light Commercial.

As we introduce the new Friday edition of this column, here are some quick-read items for your holiday weekend reading pleasure.

The Pinole Senior Center will be open as a Cooling Center through Wednesday. Opening hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. People suffering from the heat - regardless of age or city of residence - are welcome to come into the air-conditioned center, where they can watch TV and drink ice water, said Senior Center Coordinator Janet Bilbas.

Gary Boyles is out as fire chief of the Rodeo-Hercules Fire Protection District.

STEPHANIE WONG is spending part of the summer before her senior year at El Cerrito High School in the waters off the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Pinole police arrested two men suspected of robbing a convenience store last week and seek one more.

Better communication and consistent enforcement of campus rules are keys to curbing the recent spike in West Contra Costa school fights and other safety problems, police and district officials say.

Cuts to administrator jobs in the Pinole Fire Department threaten the existence of Battalion 7, a team of six fire stations in three agencies that functions as one department for a large chunk of West Contra Costa, some fire officials warn.

A recent rash of safety problems at West Contra Costa school campuses has some mulling the need for an additional police presence at middle schools, but budget shortfalls could threaten the idea before it gains ground.

Pinole police searched in vain for three men who held up a 7-Eleven on Wednesday night, but did find the getaway car in an unincorporated section of nearby San Pablo.

Team classic cars, live entertainment and free admission with a picturesque locale and you have the Cruisin' In The Sun Classic Car Show, which returns for its 18th year in Old Town Pinole from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 28.

The Pinole Community Players present the entertaining musical "Pump Boys & Dinettes," a tribute to life along the open road of North Carolina's Highway 57, weekends through July 11 at the Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave.

On Sunday morning, 2,000 men and women will leap from a ferry off Alcatraz Island and into the 55-degree waters of the Bay for a choppy 1.5-mile swim to the shore.

Police arrested three men Thursday afternoon for allegedly assaulting and robbing three people at the Del Monte Shopping Center in Pinole.

An eighth-grade graduation ceremony in Pinole was canceled after a gang fight broke out and an off-duty officer was assaulted.

Pinole police arrested three men on suspicion of assaulting and robbing three customers coming out of a bar early Thursday morning.

A gang fight broke out at an eighth-grade graduation ceremony at which an off-duty police officer was assaulted Wednesday.

The Recreation Departmment is accepting registration for its Summer High School Musical Theater Camp, which begins workshops July 1. The program is open to current high school students and recent graduates.

Thanks largely to casino revenues that appear to be holding steady, San Pablo has managed to draft a "status quo" budget for the coming fiscal year that would maintain the current level of services and leave existing labor agreements untouched, despite a nationwide and statewide economic downturn.

A letter recently came to Our Neighbors announcing that "Mr. Stewart's fifth-grade class" at Stewart K-8 School in Pinole is participating in Pennies for Peace, a program that turns loose change into items needed by students in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.